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The most awaited TV series of 2018

Usual caveats apply, which is: a) the ranks of the anticipation are directly proportional to how I anticipate them, with a fair amount of bias, and b) The list is what I know of right now, but there could be some great shows debuting suddenly this year, which is always a good news in spite of no mentions here. So, without much further ado, more because we are already couple of months in 2018, here is the list of which all TV series to look out for this year.

Netflix, 6 episodes.
Leila is a lonely 17 year old girl addicted to a fictional online gaming site called Agora. While playing on the platform, Leila meets Tess, a cool and confident party girl who harbors a dark secret. In the real world, the two girls become friends, but after Tess disappears Leila decides to assume her friend’s identity and in doing so is quickly drawn into unraveling the mystery behind her disappearance.

HBO, HBO Nordic. 6 episodes.Directed by: Steven Soderbergh.
Mosaic is a whodunit mystery thriller based on the murder of popular children’s book author and illustrator Olivia Lake that takes place in Park City, Utah. Originally released as an interactive app, Mosaic allows the viewer to experience different portions of the story from the perspective of different characters in a non-linear fashion, providing a complex and unique narrative form. Note that the ending has very polarised reaction among viewers.

TNT, Netflix. 7 episodes.Starring: Daniel Brühl, Dakota Fanning, Luke Evans.
Using the emerging disciplines of psychology and early forensic investigation techniques, a band of social outsiders (a psychologist, a crime reporter, and a headstrong secretary) set out to find and apprehend one of New York City’s first serial killers during the late 19th century.

Hulu, 11 episodes.
Creators: Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney. Starring: Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard.
Tracing the rising threat of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, it takes a controversial look at how the rivalry between the CIA and FBI inadvertently might have set the stage for the tragedy of 9/11 and the war in Iraq.

Netflix, 10 episodes.Starring: Ellen Page, Tom Hopper. Based on graphic novel from: Gerard Way.
After their dad dies, a dysfunctional and disbanded family of superheroes reluctantly gets back together to discover what happened to their (The Monocle, Spaceboy, Number Five, The Horror, and The White Violin) fallen father.

Showtime, 20 episodes.Directed by: Todd Field. Based on the novel by: Jonathan Franzen. Starring: Daniel Craig.
A young woman joins an activist group, and begins a global journey in search of her father.

Amazon Prime, 10 episodes.
Starring: Steve Buscemi, Bryan Cranston, Vera Farmiga.
A sci-fi anthology series with stand-alone episodes based on the works of Philip K. Dick. Only problem is that it doesn’t turn out to be an overdose of ‘black mirror’.

Netflix, 10 episodes.A remake of the 1960s sci-fi series. A family lost in outer spaces in 2040s, and while en route to their new home, they must forge new alliances and work together to survive in a dangerous alien environment, light-years from their original destination.

Amazon Prime, 8 episodes.Starring: Madhavan, Amit Sadh.
Breathe is an Indian crime/drama/thriller that explores the lives of ordinary men faced with extraordinary circumstances, a brilliant but non-conventional officer of the Crime Branch, puts the pieces together of seemingly unconnected deaths that lead up to an unlikely suspect.

BBC, AMC, Amazon Prime. 8 episodes.
Alex Godman, the English-raised son of Russian mafia exiles, has spent his life trying to escape the shadow of their past, building his own legitimate business and forging a life with his girlfriend, Rebecca. But when a murder unearths his family’s past, Alex is drawn into the criminal underworld where he must confront his values to protect those he loves.

Amazon Prime.Directed by: Sam Esmail. Starring: Julia Roberts, Bobby Cannavale.
This thriller/drama is a story of employees at a secret government agency who are eager to re-enter civilian life, while one woman employee trying to piece together the truth behind a secret government program.

HBO, HBO Nordic. 10 episodes.Starring: Tim Robbins, Holly Hunter. Creator: Alan Ball.Comedy/drama: A multi-racial family made up of husband, wife, three adopted children from Somalia, Vietnam and Colombia and one biological child, find their bonds tested when one of the children begins seeing things which the rest cannot.

SyFy, 5 episodes.Creator: David S. Goyer.
Set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet, KRYPTON follows Superman’s grandfather – whose House of El was ostracized and shamed – as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.

Amazon Prime, 8 episodes.Written by: Carlton Cuse & Graham Roland (based on characters by: Tom Clancy). Starring: John Krasinski. Series music: Ramin Djawadi.
The series follows Ryan as he uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into the center of a dangerous gambit with a new breed of terrorism that threatens destruction on a global scale.

AMC, 10 episodes.Starring:Jared Harris, Ciarán Hinds. Executive producer: Ridley Scott. Based on novel from: Dan Simmons.
In this horror-drama set in 1847, a crew of a Royal Naval expedition is sent to find the Arctic’s treacherous Northwest Passage but instead discovers a monstrous predator, a cunning and vicious Gothic horror that stalks the ships in a desperate game of survival.

Netflix, 10 episodes.Created by: Laeta Kalogridis.A sci-fi/thriller set in a future, where consciousness is digitized and stored, a prisoner returns to life in a new body and must solve a mind-bending murder to win his freedom.

Fox, 8 episodes.Starring; Mark Strong. Created by: Matthew Parkhill.
What happens when a man who believes he has retired from MI6 is called back to do one more job to regain his life, only to discover that this job may mean he has no life to go back to.

Netflix, 10 episodes.
Netflix’s second German language series after Dark is a crime-drama-thriller. A politically sensitive murder forces two disparate detectives into a battle against their wills with the Berlin underworld and a confrontation with their own corruption, which is willing to destroy the cops at any cost.

2nd season of American Crime Story. FX, BBC. 10 episodes.Starring: Edgar Ramírez, Ricky Martin, Penélope Cruz.The second season show will focus on the murder investigation of fashion designer Gianni Versace by the serial killer Andrew Cunanan in the 1990s and how the investigation into Versace’s death led to what is famously considered the largest failed FBI manhunt in history.

Netflix, 6 episodes.
Documentary series directed by: Chapman Way, Maclain Way.
A true story of Osho’s Rajneeshpuram, when the world’s most controversial guru builds a utopian city deep in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal. What transpired at that 64,229-acre land purchased in 1981 for $5.75 million led to the closing of the city, arrest of Osho and his many followers, US government giving him life-threatening injections in jail, deported from US, travelled to many countries just to be denied entry, and finally landing in India.

Amazon Prime, 10 episodes.Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn.
Crime/drama exploring the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles by following characters’ existential journeys from being killers to becoming samurais in the City of Angels.

Netflix, 10 episodes.Directed by: Cary Fukunaga. Starring: Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, Justin Theroux.
A comedy adaptation of a 2014 Norwegian series about two patients in a mental institution who live somewhere between the real world and their wild fantasy worlds.

Sky, Netflix (US, Aus). 2 Seasons, 16 episodes.Created & directed by: Henk Handloegten, Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries. Written by: Volker Kutscher.In this historical crime-drama, a Colognian commissioner moves to Berlin, the epicenter of political and social changes in the Golden Twenties, at the foundations of the still young Weimar Republic. What appears to be solving a simple criminal case of a porno ring run by the Berlin Mafia soon reveals itself to be a scandal that will forever change the lives of both him and his closest associates. This also happens to be the most expensive non-English drama or a German series ever made.

Showtime, 5 episodes miniseries.Story: Edward St. Aubyn. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch.
Based on the ‘Patrick Melrose’ novels, which are based on the author’s own life, growing up in a highly dysfunctional upper-class English family and the decadent aristocracy, dealing with the deaths of both parents, alcoholism, heroin addiction and recovery, and marriage and parenthood.

HBO, 8 episodes.Director: Jean-Marc Vallée. Story: Gillian Flynn. Starring: Amy Adams.A mystery/thriller, where a reporter confronts the psychological demons from her past when she returns to her tiny hometown to cover the violent murders of two preteen girls.

20 Most Awaited Returning Series

An obligatory list, however less interesting because the most important returning series has been postponed until next year, so is the second most (hopefully). Nevertheless, there is still some quality series coming back this year..